Lounge Review | Toit Brewpub, Bangalore

Three school friends, Sibi Venkataraju, Arun George and Mukesh Tolani, believed Bangalore deserved a brewery. They quit their day jobs and got together with Glen Williams, who runs The Sweet Chariot chain of bakeries in Bangalore, to start Toit, the brew pub on 100 Feet Road in Indiranagar. The pub and restaurant opened in March, but it took them eight months to finally get the brew plant going. Toit served its first brew over the Christmas weekend. We went along with Mohit Nischol, manager at Tulleeho, the beverage training company, for a tasting.

The good

“We don’t want to be beer snobs by providing food pairings, but are merely making suggestions," says Venkataraju, stressing on the pub being a casual space, not fine dining. This is well reflected in their tag line, Sending it since 2010.

The Toit Red is an amber ale brewed with fruits such as pine, grape, raisins and grapefruit. Nischol found the fruity aroma was not so significant but the beer has a smooth bitterness that stays in the mouth. “Ales should ideally be bitter, but since Indians are not used to the bitter taste, this will serve well for those who are feeling a bit adventurous," he says.

But the beer that reflects Toit’s high standards of brewing is the Colonial Toit, English pale ale with caramel-infused malt. Bitter, the way an ale is meant to be, it makes for the perfect winter beer—dark with an aroma of roasted grains.

The pub also has a number of cocktails, wine, bottled beers and hard liquor. They even serve Long Island Iced Tea and Cosmopolitans by the pitcher. Also, they have a wood-fired oven and live counter for pizzas, proving they’re serious about their food.

The not-so-good

The most disappointing beer of the four is the Toit Weiss. Nischol found it a bit watered-down and lacking in body. Meant to be akin to German wheat beer with undertones of spices and fruits, the beer tastes and smells more significantly of the wheat than anything else. Despite the long brew menu, not all the brews are available. The management promises that all options will flow in soon enough. The staff is not yet trained to understand the brews, a limitation the owners admit to. “It’s a matter of time before they understand the brews," says Venkataraju. If you are curious about how the brew was made, it’s between you and the menu, or you can ask to meet the brew master, Phillip Keln.

Talk plastic

500ml of brewed beer is priced at ₹ 200, which is reasonable, compared to other brew clubs in the city, and cheaper by at least ₹ 100 than any imported bottled ales. They offer tasters of all four brews and ₹ 150 will bring you four 90ml tasters. Basic finger food like a plate of nachos topped with cheese is priced at ₹ 125, while a pizza is priced at ₹ 290 for a 12-inch margherita, and goes up to ₹ 500 for a seafood pizza.